I’ve been watching the Indian Wells coverage on/off the last few days and so far, so good as things have held fairly to form with the brackets. The top guys Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Andy Roddick have all reached the last 16 without the loss of a set, and they are all playing today! What a line-up!

The only real early upsets belonged to the French who saw Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gilles Simon, my man Gael Monfils and Richard Gasquet all flamed out meekly.

Of the top guys after two matches, Nadal is still looking like the man to beat but the Spaniard will meet David Nalbandian in a tricky fourth round clash tonight.

No. 2 seed Federer appeared scratchy in a second round win over Marc Giquel. Today, he’ll have to deal with the volatile Fernando Gonzalez, a much tougher task than either Gicquel or his third round victim, Ivo Karlovic. This will be a good test of where the Swiss’s game is at.

Roddick got through in fine form last night over the squirrelly Nicolas Kiefer. Sounds like the grainy court is really taking to Andy’s serve, but from the backcourt the American is hardly making much of a dent, and that’s not a good sign. I do, however, give Roddick high marks for that F-You bomb he fired at Daniel Koellerer in that second set tiebreak. Just fabulous.

Roddick now gets David Ferrer late this afternoon. Ferrer is one of the best returners in the game and he’s beaten Andy before at IW, but I think Roddick get through here.

Djokovic also hasn’t looked especially good, but the defending champ has survived and advanced, and that’s what counts in the end. Novak will face Stan Wawrinka with a possible rematch with Roddick ahead.

Also today, we have a John Isner sighting! The guy’s hard to miss, but he’s been a non-factor on the ATP circuit since the D.C. run a few summers ago. The 6-foot-9 Bulldog has served his way through Christophe Rochus, Monfils and yesterday Safin. (Horrible loss for Monfils by the way! Horrible!). But I think his run ends today again Juan Martin Del Potro. DelPo’s been sluggish this week, but his height should neutralize of some Isner’s service hop.

I also like Fernando Verdasco over Phil Kohlschrieber, Murray over Tommy Robredo and Igor Andreev to put a stop to Ivan Ljubicic.

Overall, a great day of tennis is in store. If you are in the U.S. you can watch on Fox Sports Net (and yes, with that comes Justin Gimelstob) starting 4pm ET with Federer and Gonzalez.

Am watching Verdasco, doing enough to beat Koellscreiber(spelling?) doing enough, but not too exciting, but am waiting 4 Andy M., I think coming up at 8pm my time. Looking foward to that one and he and Ross got into the quarters. Amazing. Congrats to Bryan brothers, thank goodness Rafa’s not going to win everything!

MMT: If you’re interested in watching the match, it’s presently being shown on ATDHE.net. When the schedule appears arrow down to 2:00 pm, IW Kolschreiber v. Verda, and click on it. The button in the center at the bottom right, between the o.oo and the speaker, enlarges the screen. Pretty good match BTW. The other matches begin at 4:00 pm. Enjoy.

Do you think there’s hope for some players, e.g., Blake/Gonzalez and to a lesser extent Tsonga, to be able to curb their ripping mentality, or is it too late for them to change now, since it’s a habit that’s ingrained in them? It appears to me that quite a few players are impatient, personality wise, but on the court, they keep a lot of balls in play and patiently wait for their opportunity to hit a winner, unlike Blake/Gonzalez/Tsonga. Do you not think the coaches of these players have done or could transmit this flaw to the respective players? Or, is it the players are too stubborn to change their MOL of ripping their FHs as hard as possible to obtain an outright winner, instead of working the point the hard way? I’m puzzled that a shot so detrimental to their game is constantly being employed and they seem oblivious to what’s happening.

Similarly, I often wonder if those players who are too patient and sometimes get themselves enmeshed in extended rallies can learn how to let it rip sooner!

sar:

I am hoping Novak can get through today too of course.

However, lately I see a bit of what I mentioned above from Djoko; he gets into these lengthy rallies and wears himself down. He needs to work on ending points sooner: become more adept at the net and finish off points. To me it seems like he’s working towards this already. I’ve seen signs of him coming in more so far at IW, but it’ll take time and patience to get that skill down if it doesn’t come naturally. It can be done though; Nadal, for instance, is more than competent at the net nowadays.

In my opinion Novak still is uncomfortable with the new racquet; he’s making way more errors than he used to, largely because the racquet has more power. He has to make the adjustments. Now, he’s hitting too much into the mid court, playing tenatively, as he doesn’t want to hit the ball out, or he actually IS hitting it out. It must be frustrating for him, but he made the choice to switch so he’ll have to deal with it.

OMG, so far Novak is playing just plain ugly versus Stan the man. And I am a fan – of Novak, that is (nothing against Stan, but he’s a bit backboard-like at times, though a nice looking backhand when it’s firing). Djoko’s just not getting it together. Lots of errors, two double faults already, serve percentage dropping as I write. UGH, and also, SIGH.

Admittedly I have watches very little of the match as am spring cleaning but from what I have seen it appears he is sitting back, waiting for Stan to make an error – & what was that drop shot at 1-0 in the 2nd? Poor shot selection – but he love the dropper. Am I totally off?

Whomever wins the Andreev/Ljubicic match is going to be super tired when they meet Murray.
____________
jane:

I’m not an expert, nor have I played tennis for approx. 3 years now, but I don’t feel the racquet switch could still be a problem for Djoko after 3 months of constant use. What I see from Djoko’s playing, is that of a player who has lost his weapons and game and is struggling to find them. I could be way off in my thinking, but that’s how it appears to me. I’m apologizing before hand just in case my comment offends you.

You’re right. I should have said ‘temporarily’ lost his weapons. Djoko’s never left though, he’s still here.

Blake has made several excuses for his falling off, and hasn’t done much better but worse since going back to his old racquets. I’ve never gotten the correct story on the racquet swtich with Blake. As I said I’m not an expert, hence, I digress.

Ok, Jane is watching Roddick, tenisbebe especially, I gotta work tomorrow, so good night from me! It’s 2:25 AM, but I enjoyed every minute of it! Greetings to Von, clever guy, pleasure to read his comments here. Until tomorrow night!

Hi, thanks for the greetings and the compliment. Hello, I’m not a ‘guy’, I’m a ‘gal’. I thought you would have picked it up from my comments when I said ‘my husband’ likes the Rover too. A lot of people mistake my post name for a guy, so you’re OK.

The umpire is messing up big time, and is not over-ruling the lines people. It’s upsetting Andy and is ultimately going to affect his game. Two to three bad calls. Two confirmed by hawkeye. Oy Vey. I don’t like watching Ferrer play, so I’m walking away and watching Isner who has his own battle going with DelPotro.

I couldn’t leave you guys! Von, ha ha ha! I thought for one moment when you said husband, but I forgot that you have husbands and wives, in my language there’s a catch about it! Anyway, you know now that it was a true compliment. Now it’s really time to go! Jane, we’ll smile together! Somehow it seems so even for tomorrow!

So Novak pulled it out when it mattered today. That’s good. On other blogs people are saying Novak beat a lesser player and had a hard time but look at Fed today.
# 2 Fed had to go three sets with Gonzo and he is 17
# 3 Djokovic finished #16 WaWa off in two.

Von:
“I’ve never played against an opponent who was noisy, e.g., Ferer, how does the noise affect you when you’re playing. It would really drive me crazy.”

I’m only a 3.6-4.0 singles player so not much of grunting groaning or screaming (you get that from higher level players). But the rare times I did have a noisy opponent it was more irritating than intimidating. They teach that technique at the academies (or they did). I have accidentally done it myself several times & I’ve hit a winner every time, so I must admit, I think there’s something to be said for it.

“Does anyone know what happened in the Bryans v Federer/Allegro match? I see a 6-2, 6-0 but don’t understand how that adds up…”

I’m not sure I understand your question but it was the best 2 out-of-3 sets; hence the Bryans won in 2. If your question is more, “How did they win so overwhelmingly” , I can’t answer cuz it wasn’t televised.

Milan, I actually gave Novak credit for how he stood up to Roddick at the Open. Look it up. It’s not all one-way traffic as you suggest.

Pietjp, sorry, I have no knowledge of the Euro broadcast scheduling for tennis. Best bet try those online sites.

Indeed, with Tsonga and Cilic out, Murray’s path is pretty breezy. Next is Ljubicic who has apparently risen from the dead.

Joshdragon, looks like the Rafa- Doughnut Dave match will go on well past my bed time, but I doubt I’ll miss much. These courts seem to be really suited for Rafa. I don’t think David wins more than 8 games.

Richard Vach, when you play Isner you don’t necessarily need to be fit. You just need to get his serve back. And I think taller guys like DelPo should find it easier to accomplish that tall task.

Justin Gimelslob is a complete jerk! Someone mentioned Davydenko & he said good thing he’s not at IW as he singlehandedly brings down TV ratings. I’m not a Nico fan but that twerp has no right to say such a thing – as an announcer. Slob was a gutless player & Nico could have kicked his butt anyday. I’m switch to live stream – the commemtator called David “Federer and then “Fairy” but it’s better than this.

Von – you have a big smile, yes? He should be proud of that victory – any match vs David is no way a gimmie – you know it’s going to be a long night. (with the exception of the last half of last year when he had the girlfriend breakup troubles). Congrats Andy!!!!

Now C’MON DINERA!!!
——————-

Jane – I’ll be watching Nadal/Nalby too. Hopefully you’ll be online so I won’t be lonely….

Sean – “Not sure if Rafa/David are friends. I’d be surprised though if they really were. ” Yeah, it doesn’t fit: one the hardest workers on the tour friend with one of the most talented but undermotivated? Would like to know if that’s true or not.

Wow, that was a humdinger of a match. David Ferrer deserves a lot of respect as Andy mentioned to him, but Lord I can’t handle his groans, moans and tantrums. He’s way too noisy for me. Gimme, the quieter, not so groany/ish type. Did I just make up a word?
______________
jane;

Yes, we can all rest well tonight. Andy’s serve was misfiring in the second set. I don’t know, if I were him, I would challenge some of the serves up the ‘T’, which were very close, IMO.

Sorry to say about the respect thing ala Djoko, knowing Andy, and considering what has transpired between him and Djoko, I’d say he was being sarcastic, if he indeed said that. I could be wrong, but …

Re: The Gimel-sob crush, I’d say it’s a toss-up between Fed and Andy. Pick the winner.

I remember that presser. Andy was very mature & respectful with all of his comments regarding that match – no trash talkin’ this time around.

Jane, i’m getting sleepy but am going to try to stay up as I hope this will be a good match. I am rooting for Nalby in this one. Generally I don’t decide who I’m going to root for until I see the OOP but I also wouldn’t mind seeing Nalby give us a surprise. I’ve been rooting for Verdasco for a couple yrs but haven’t had anything to get excited about til this year. Yes, Fed needs one too & I’d like to see him win a title before the clay court season starts & Rafa (presumably) starts on his run. Would also be thrilled if Murray and/or Roddick won either here or Miami. So basically, I’ll be happy if a number of different guys wins the title.

Oh Lord, this Safina match is going 3. If Von couldn’t handle Ferrer’s groanyishness (hey, a new word!) she’d go stark raving mad with the noise coming from this WTA match: one screams, the other moans, where’s my Advil? What do you think of the on-court coaching? I don’t like it – too whimpy. And yet another reason for the ATP to distance itself from the WTA.

You betcha, I watched Andy’s match, but I had to walk away in the second set. I couldn’t handle the breaks and Ferrer’s groans were getting louder and louder. Good win for Andy and am happy he is in the QFs.
_____________
tenisbebe:

I guess my nerves are shattered. Oh Lord those two women sounded more like a duet, one screeches in Russian and the other squeals her answers in Polish. I fell asleep even though they were screeching so loudly. The late nights are catching up to me. I’m wishing for Friday to come soon.
___________
Duro:

My oh my aren’t you the lucky one!! Just look at you, a single thorn among, not one, not two, but t-h-r-e-e roses. Life’s good, don’t you think? Good to see you are happy your guy won, me too.

Jane – I’m using ATDHE and it’s good. I had to shut it down, rebooted & clicked on the 7:30pm Isner vs DelPotro icon & it’s working fine. Channelsurfing.net has Thursday’s stuff displayed but you could try clicking on the 4pm icon.

Well, thank you FSN for your crummy coverage. They stopped broadcasting tennis at 2:30 am, and are now showing some silly show.

Nadal seems to be playing hanky-panky with the balls at the net. He slammed a ball back into his side of the court in front of him. That was funny, then he fell trying to get to another ball at the net again, but still won the point. He’s super fast, I mean WOW, super fast. I never realized just how fast he is until that point. Good match thus far.

Jane – not the one where Nadal fell, the one before that, maybe your video was stopping at the time. Von – it was the “He slammed a ball back into his side of the court in front of him. That was funny,”
What happened??? The showed it on replay but the commentators said nothing!!! It looked like it either hit Nalby or hit Rafa side of the net – but Rafa got the pt, I’m confused.

Seems like Rafa has upped his level now, but Nalby isn’t going anywhere. Imagine, the final could be Nalbandian vs. Ljubicic! That’d be a throwback…. Okay I no the odds are next to none but funny to imagine it.

“Seems like Rafa has upped his level now, but Nalby isn’t going anywhere.”

Yeah & that injury to to have his toes taped along with that extra time he took at his chair (h2o, racquet, etc) after the 1st game of the 2nd set really was NOT COOL. David hasn’t been fazed thus far by that ploy but we’ll see….

“he never seems to be out of position. Why is that? It’s fascinating.” Yes jane, i’ve noticed that too. particularly a few times when rafa pulled him wide on the one side, came in & whether he went behind nalby or crosscourt, david “knew” and moved into position. uncanny.

My assumption on why the next matches will be the matches that are waiting for by all tennis fans:

Nadal vs Poltro – They never play against each other since the rise of Poltro last year.

Djokovic vs Roddick – To me, Djokovic vs Roddick (other than Nadal vs Federer) is another example of what great nemesis is all about (due to what has happened / drama in the recent occasions like USO and AO). Nobody can tell who will win this match at the moment – very interesting!

Verdasco vs Federer – No clarification is needed. Everybody knows this will be tomorrow’s ‘match of the day.’ Can’t wait to see!

:) try being in MY place. i’m in india, and i get jet-lagged during the US Season without even flying :D my schedule rt now? get into bed at 11/11:30pm, wake up at 2am for the 1st match. catch a couple of hours winks while the ladies are having at it (hey, i need SOME sleep :) ), wake up at around 5:30am for the next, get ready for work, catch the 1st set of the night session match, rush to work (which is fortunately just a few mins away from home), catch the rest of the match online. I have NO idea how i’m functioning rt now! :) heck, i’m just glad the QFs are spread over two days so rafa and i BOTH get some rest :D

“I have so much respect for you, man” is what Andy just told Ferrer at the net. Wonder if he’ll say that Novak when they shake? Can’t wait!

Sean,oh Sean, Roddick might say that to a little guy he just barely beat, sure. The real question of respect is would Roddick have said it to Ferrer if Ferrer had beaten Roddick? I don’t think so. Also, does Roddick say this to Federer when he gets beat by him? LOL So the question of respect you pose is really not a good one.

Yes, him and Doug Adler. The way Adler was trashing Djokovic the other day on the TC was awful. I wonder if the station will “tame” him or better yet, get rid of him.

Jane: thanks for that Roddick video clip. Poor Sean. BTW Robredo who b*tched about Djokovic retiring last year did the same thing against Murray yesterday. Thought that was a kind of sweet revenge for Novak.

sar – no worries. It is what it is. I just thought Andy was pretty respectful there. How do you feel about the Novak versus Roddick quarter final? I think it could go either way, the way they are both playing. Rod will definitely have the crowd behind him there. And Novak’s been struggling. So as I said on the other thread, I am leaning towards Roddick coming through. But it’s 50/50.

Hey Duro – Of course I was posting from my head not my heart. If I follow my heart, I want Novak to defend his title – no question. I don’t want him to lose anymore points. But just based on the way he is playing, I can’t help but have my doubts. Plus, I tend to be a pessimist and so am always pleasantly surprised when I am wrong! Expect the worst; hope for the best!! : D

Ha ha ha, so mild in every aspect… I told you to be more passionate! No matter about points, he will regain it in Miami, or even earn some more, because he’s got none to defend there. In my opinion, he’ll make it at least to the semis, which means that I think he can pass by Andy R.

Ha ha Duro – yes I work; I teach at a college, so I am not usually around in the day, just at night and in the mornings. I don’t teach Fridays so can watch tennis while I mark. Occasionally I peek in between classes too.

Ha ha ha, I kind of thought so (about peeking in, but at work)! I Work from 8 am, and I stay every night till 2 or 3! This is how much I love tennis, but for Nole, for Nole I would stay 3 days without sleeping! I expect the match against Roddick to start tomorrow at 3 AM, or even 5 AM (in Europe). But, no problem, and I even work that morning!

I love my new HDMI monitor. It’s absolutely fa-U-lous. I’m able to watch split screen placing two matches side by side.

Here’s an HD feed: ATDHE.Net. When the menu comes up, scroll down to IW match at 10:30 pm amd click on it. Tt will take you to the Fed/Verdasco match. On the feed screen there are some buttons to the right bottom, click on the button between the o.oo and the speaker and this will enlarge the picture. Enjoy.

“Roddick said they [he and Novak] are fine now and over the press war that he started. He says they may not be the best of friends but that they have always respected one another. Djokovic would not talk about any disdain or resentment against Roddick, but just praised his game and level. The Serb also said that Roddick is the favorite in this match as he is playing in front of his home country on his favorite surface. “